Kitten TTS is an open-source series of tiny and expressive text-to-speech models for on-device applications. We are excited to launch a preview of our smallest model, which is less than 25 MB. This model has 15M parameters.

This release supports English text-to-speech applications in eight voices: four male and four female. The model is quantized to int8 + fp16, and it uses onnx for runtime. The model is designed to run literally anywhere eg. raspberry pi, low-end smartphones, wearables, browsers etc. No GPU required!

The term “ethicswashing” was recently coined to describe the phenomenon of instrumentalising ethics by misleading communication, creating the impression of ethical Artificial Intelligence (AI), while no substantive ethical theory, argument, or application is in place or ethicists involved. Ethicswashing resembles greenwashing for environmental issues and has become an issue – particularly since 2019 with Thomas Metzinger’s harsh criticisms as a member of the EU panel for developing ethical guidelines for AI, which he called “ethicswashing.” Nowadays, increased ethics washing has changed the perception of AI ethics, leading critics to find a “trivialization” of ethics that may even lead to “ethics bashing.”

Considering the scattered literature body and the various manifestations of digital ethicswashing, we recognise the need to assess the existing literature comprehensively. To fill this gap, this research systematically reviews current knowledge about digital ethicswashing stemming from various academic disciplines, contributing to an up-to-date assessment of its underlying characteristics. Applying content analysis to map the field leads us to present five thematic clusters: ethicswashing, ethics bashing, policymaking and regulation, watchdogs, and academia.

In conclusion, we synthesise ethicswashing along a process-perception-outcome framework to provide future research to explore the multiple meanings of digital ethicswashing.